


Ari's first flying lesson

by Queen_Aster_Luna



Series: Heirs of Prythian [8]
Category: A Court of Thorns and Roses Series - Sarah J. Maas
Genre: Big brother Art, Brother-Sister Relationships, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Little Ari, Original Character(s), Originally Posted on Tumblr, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, flying lesson
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-22
Updated: 2018-08-27
Packaged: 2019-06-09 22:55:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 11,960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15277998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Queen_Aster_Luna/pseuds/Queen_Aster_Luna
Summary: Little Arianna, Princess of Night, wants her older brother Artemas to teach her how to fly. But the asking part isn't as easy as she had hoped it would be, especially if her brother likes to tease her.Feyre and Rhys will start to appear in chapter 3. Just a little warning.





	1. "Can you teach me how to fly today?"

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own anything, just my own characters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi!  
> How are all of you doing? So I'm back with my next fic in the Heirs of Prythian series.  
> I hope you like it as much as my first fic.  
> Little warning, Feyre and Rhys only appear in chapters 3, 4 & 5 (maybe 6, I am not sure yet).

A excited shout wakes the 77-year-old Quarter-Illyrian partly out of his deep sleep. Still flouting between being deep asleep and being half-awake, he hears fast, tiny footsteps approaching him in a rush. Though before he could register anything else, something lands on his chest and rocks him and his bed momentarily. And this is what wakes him right then, but he decides to pretend that he is asleep regardless of who is shaking him on their hands and knees. 

"Art! Art! Art! Art! Artemas!" Comes it whispered and urgently from above his chest. "Wake up! Please! Art! ART!" It goes on without stopping. But Art doesn't react, until he feels tiny hands lightly slapping his right cheek repeatedly. It doesn't hurt at all, but it still isn't worth the effort to continue his charade.

_As violent as ever._

A small chuckle escapes Art and he opens his eyes in defeat. Blue-grey meets blue-grey. His little sister Arianna has her face directly in front of his. Noses almost touching.

"Finally!" She exclaims satisfied, but also slightly annoyed, while sitting back, not leaving his chest. Art scans her face, the pouting lips, the narrowed blue-grey eyes, the freckles across her nose and cheeks, the raven-colored hair. She is in her rumbled red pajamas and looks like she just woke up and immediately went to him. After taking in Ari's appearance, Art looks around his room.

"Cauldron! Ari! Why are you awake? It's still dark outside!" Art complains, while rubbing his left eye with his fist, yawning. And indeed, Art was right, the sun hasn't even risen yet and his room was still dark. "Go back to sleep, little night! In your room or here! I don't care, but for the love of the mother, let me sleep!" 

"No!" Ari says defiantly with a pout, crossing her arms, glaring at him and flapping her wings behind her back in indignation.

_Right, she has them now. His little sister has wings now!_

Art couldn't help, but be happy at that thought, but he still isn't in the mood to entertain her right now. He is still too tired, and it was the first time in a relatively long time since he didn't have nightmares plaguing his sleep. Intended to get the rest of his well deserved sleep, Art makes a move to pick her up from his chest, but just as he has his hands under her armpits, Ari has already clutched her hands into his shirt and refuses to let go, stretching the fabric. A growl and a "NO!" comes from her in a screamed whisper. Giving up, Art brings his hands to his face, rubbing his eyes and than scratching the side of his neck and his throat, yawning. 

"Why? What do you want, Ari?" Art sighs defeated, closing his eyes and than settles one hand on her side to stabilize her, so she wouldn't fall down, while she continues to squirm and move around, never stopping. Ari never stops moving, she has way to much energy than her tiny body can contain. 

_The faster she gets to say what she wants, the faster he can get back to sleep._

Arianna looks curiously at her older brother, thinking about how to ask him, so that he would agree immediately. The four-year-old has often trouble to get her older brother to do what she wanted, especially if she asked the question wrong and since her brother is immune to puppy-eyes and other similar tricks, Ari needs to work a lot more than usual to get him to do things for her. But she is determined to get her older brother to agree to her request, no matter what.

While thinking, Ari noticed her brother rubbing his throat and also the round scar he has there. This is not the first time Ari has seen this particular scar. Most of the time she sees the same scars on his wrist, but she is already so used to them, that she overlooks them all. Though her brother has quite a few of them on other places on his body, but they are still a huge mystery for Ari. Momentarily distracted, Ari reaches out and touches the scar softly. 

_Where did he even get this scar? Or all the other ones that look almost exactly like that. They look really painful. Someone must have really hurt him._

"Someday I'll tell you, Ari, but that's not the reason you are here, before the crack of dawn, disturbing my sleep!" Art did noticed his sister's focus shifting upon his scar and her face is still too easy for him to read and could easily deduct what Ari was thinking without getting into her mind. And she seemed to get mad at the last thought.

Startled, Ari takes her hand back fast as if she got burned. She feels guilty for bringing up what she assumes are painful memories for Art, especially since she didn't want to do that. Her reason for her sitting on brother and waking him up at such an early hour, have nothing to do with it. 

"I don't mind if you touch it, little night." Art says softly and smooths Ari's hair out of her face with his other hand that isn't stabilizing her. "But I am tired, so just tell me whatever you want to ask and I can go back to sleep." 

"So you are going to say yes to my request?" Ari asks hopefully, almost jumping in excitement.

"I didn't say that, Ari!" Art counters teasingly. Ari groans in annoyance and is fed up with her brother's teasing, which he does regularly to Ari, but almost everyone else as well. Growling, she hits his chest repeatedly with her little fists. Even with the force she puts into it, it doesn't hurt him much, everyone else would already have yelled in pain and thrown her off their chest to curl up on the bed.

_His adorable little sister is so powerful._

Laughing softly, Art takes Ari's fist in his hands, not really liking being hit, regardless if it hurts or not. While smoothing his thumbs down her knuckles, Art looks into Ari's blue-grey eyes, the same eyes as his mother's and his own's.

"It depends on your request. And I don't know what it is what you want." Art says to his little sister calmly, setting their hands on his chest, smiling to himself.

_Oh this is going to be hilarious!_

Huffing and wiggling her legs, Ari takes a deep breath and frees her hands from her brother's. With the biggest puppy-eyes she has in her repertoire and a pout, Ari sits straighter and brings her face closer to her older brother's. The question comes rushing out of her in a pleading tone.

"Can you teach me how to fly today?" 

"No."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aren't they cute? 
> 
> If you want to know more about Art, Ari or the other Heirs, visit my Tumblr @heirs-of-prythian (or my personal blog @aster-ria), there you will find profiles to some characters and aesthetics to every Heir. Also feel free to ask me any questions there!


	2. Goodnight, little night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own anything, just my own characters.

Silence, nobody and nothing made a sound. Even Ari, who almost never stops moving, sits frozen on her older brother's chest, with wide, stunned eyes and a dropped jaw. 

Realising the opportunity, Art quickly picks his sister up from his chest and sits her down beside him on the bed. And without missing a beat, Art turns around to lie on his stomach and buries his face into a pillow while hugging it. 

Slowly blinking, Ari comes out of her shocked state and notices what her brother just did to her. Feeling anry and crossed Ari crawls closer to her older brother side, but instead of climbing on top of him, Ari starts shaking him violently.

"WHY?! You dummy! WHY NOT?? Answer me!! ART!! WHY?? Tell me now!! Wake up!" Ari screams at him while shaking him. And when Art ignores her, she continues her onslaught of shaking and screaming on him without stopping.

_She should feel lucky that he already soundproofed the room, otherwise their parents would already be here and she would be in so much trouble._

After awhile, Art still hasn't been able to fall asleep, because an enraged four-year-old princess with powerful strength is not only shaking violently him from side to side but also his whole bed. Slightly fed up with it, Art makes a move. 

"WHY?? WHYYYYY? Art!! WH-..ack" Ari gets interrupted in her screaming by Art, who used his arm to bury her under it. Which surprised Ari enough to stop from whatever she was doing. 

"Shut up, little night! I'm trying to sleep here!" Art mumbles sternly to his little sister, who no lies on her back, caged by his arm. "You should try to do that, too, Ari! Now close yo-" 

"AAAHH!! Let me go! Art! Ahhh-rrrt! Let go!" Ari interrupts her brother, struggling to get out of his hold. She kicks her legs up and down, wriggles and turns around, tries to push up his arm, but nothing works. Art's arm doesn't move an inch. 

Clearly amused with Ari's display, Art softly laughs to himself. 

_Cauldron! She is so cute when she's angry!_

"ART!! Artemas!! Let me g-..." Ari's complaining stops abruptly, but not because she stopped or because Art covered her mouth, no. Her mouth is still moving, but there is no sound coming out of it. Upon noticing what her brother just did to her, Ari stops and turns to look at her brother and pouts. 

This is not the first time Art did this to Ari, so she knows what it means and what her brother wants from her.

_And the earlier she cooperates, the faster she gets her voice back._

After seeing his sister calm down, Art smiles and moves his face until both his and his sister's nose are touching. Looking into each other eyes, both go in for a move. 

"First!" Art teases after he kissed Ari's nose. Narrowing her eyes, Ari huffs and pouts and crosses her arms as best she could while being held captive like that. Than Art kisses her forehead and brings her closer to him and hugs her a like a teddy bear.

"And now sleep, little night" Art yawns, closing his eyes. Ari, knowing that it will go nowhere if she keeps struggling and tries to convince him now, sighs in defeat and makes a mental note to ask her brother tomorrow morning again.

_And this time he will not get away with not saying yes. Tomorrow morning she will definitely get him to teach her how to fly._

So the princess of night buries her head into the shoulder of the heir of night and tries to fall asleep. But the longer she lies on her back, the more uncomfortable and painful it gets because of her wings. Needing to copy her brother, but having no room to move, Ari starts struggling again. 

Because of his little sister's struggling and her feeling of uncomfortableness and pain, Art figures out what is happening. 

"Just shapeshift back to normal, little night. You can make yourself new ones tomorrow." Art says into her head, not wanting to speak out loud. Ari almost jumps out of her skin. 

"Don't wanna! Just move a little. I want to lie on my tummy!" Ari counters back to him in her mind. Art doesn't say anything back, just lifts his arm a little. 

Now having some free room, Ari immediately turns around and sighs in contentment. Snuggling closer to her brother while he holds her closer, Ari says into her mind, knowing her brother would hear her.

"Goodnight, little moon!" 

"Goodnight, little night!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you like it!


	3. Hidden Princess

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own anything, just my own characters.
> 
> This chapter is mostly just info dumbing and filler, but Rhys and Feyre are finally showing up! Yay!!!

The High Lord and The High Lady of the Night Court are in the kitchen, eating their breakfast in comfortable silence, enjoying each other's company and their calm and quiet morning. 

And what a quiet morning it was. So quiet even, that it made them really worried at first, since their beloved, very energetic and spoiled daughter Arianna didn't wake them at the crack of dawn with a good landed jump on their bed and with excited shaking and jumping and shouting. The mates instead woke up some time after dawn on their own, in a - beside themselves - empty room, which was flooded with light through the open windows.

Upon realising that their lively daughter had indeed not woken them up, the couple sat up abruptly, worried and confused. But before they could even get out of their bed completely, Feyre noticed a note on her nightstand. And the note itself wasn't easy to overlook, since it was glowing brightly. There was only one person who would place such a note there and it made Feyre and Rhys more curious than anything else.

The note read in rushed and poor handwriting: 

**"Ari is with me, don't you worry and enjoy your quiet morning. - signed Heir of Night, Artemas"**

The Parents relaxed after reading the note, but than shook their heads in amusement at their son's antics. After deciding to take his job as Heir seriously, Art began working with them and got taught by them and the inner circle about court politics, leadership, trade, history, internal and external relations, etc. Since than he started to sign everything with "signed Heir of Night, Artemas" just for the laughs, especially since his poor handwriting made it a whole lot hilarious. Other than that, Art is an excellent and brilliant student, if not for his laziness and his easy way outs, which frustrates Feyre and mostly Rhys a lot sometimes. But they know for certain that Artemas is going to be an amazing High Lord one day. 

Because of the reassurements from their son, Feyre and Rhys stopped worrying and laid back down, wanting to enjoy their quiet morning.

_Their daughter was save with her brother and he was an excellent babysitter and could entertain her for hours if needed._

So they couple spend hours in lazily in each other's arms and enjoyed their time alone together, without fearing that someone will barge into their room unannounced. But even powerful High Lords/Ladies will get hungry eventually, so the couple went downstairs into the kitchen and greeted one of the Half-Wraith twins who was making bread. 

After loading their plates with bacon, toast and fruits, Feyre and Rhys sat down and started eating while talking to the Half-Wraith and each other. But soon the kitchen would fall into comfortable silence.

After an hour they hear Artemas descenting the stairs with heavy steps and not long after, he comes through the kitchen door. The parent's eyes fall on their son and scan his appearance.

Art has the same height, the same hair and the same nose as his father, but he has the same complexion, the same eyes and eye-color and the same lips as his mother. Despite that Art almost looks like a exact copy of Rhys, about which he isn't that happy about, since a lot of people compare him with Rhys and wrongly assume that the son has the personality as the father, which couldn't be further from the truth, for the most part. 

Now, their firstborn has his hair sticking in odd directions, yawns into his left hand while the right one scratches his chest and has his eyes still closed. But he doesn't look like someone who would have been awake for hours to entertain his little sister, but Feyre and Rhys are paying no heat to that.

_Art isn't a morning person and he had most likely persuade Ari to sleep with him after she woke him up. And he is as uncaring for his looks as ever._

"G'morning, Mom, Dad, Nuala," Art greets them sleepy without looking at them, now rubbing his left eye.

"Good morning, little moon!" Comes it from the couple and Nuala almost at same time. Nobody is surprised by Art knowing who of the twins is who, he figured that out when he was 6 and hasn't told anyone how and the twins themselves have no idea either. 

After greeting the Heir, Nuala excuses herself from the kitchen and let's the family be alone together. 

Looking into the hallway, after Art walked over to the counter to make himself tea, and not seeing nor hearing anything or better anyone else, Feyre and Rhys get a little worried.

_Where is their loud daughter?_

"Art," Feyre asks, the worry is clearly evident in her voice, turning her head slightly to look at him, "where is Ari? She was with you, right? Is she still upstairs? Or is she still asleep?"

At that Art just shrugs and says vaguely that she is awake and that she is still in the house, not looking at his parents. That statement on itself isn't very reassuring, but if Art isn't worried, than nothing big should be amiss with Ari. Otherwise Art would have told them already.

"Why was she with you to being with?" Rhys asks nonchalantly, but both he and Feyre are really curious about the reason. "Did she choose to torture you with having to waking up early?" 

"I don't torture anybody with me waking them up, all of you are just lazy!" Ari protests loudly inside the kitchen. 

Confused, Feyre and Rhys look around, since the voice didn't come from a specific direction, but seem not to see their daughter. Meanwhile Art didn't react to the protest, he just got back to his tea. Leaning on the counter he watches his parent's confusion. 

"Arianna?" Feyre asks cautiously, but she doesn't get an answer. The kitchen is completely quiet.

Rhys turns questioningly to Art, who looks likes nothing is wrong and just sips his hot black tea. Raising an eyebrow, Art just stares back. 

"You know exactly where she is, right Art?" His father asks. Feyre now also turning to her son. 

Laughing to himself and shaking his head in amusement, Art doesn't answer, rather he levitates his tea mug in the air. Leaning back, he grabs the countertop to steady himself and lifts his right leg up. High enough to see his entire leg.

And there she is, Princess Arianna is hugging and clinging tightly to Heir Artemas' leg.


	4. "She wants me to teach her how to fly today."

Arianna is glaring, pouting, and frowning at the same time. The second her parents come into her line of vision, Ari looked at them with a mix of defiance, annoyance, begging, desperation and a promise violence and temper in her eyes. 

Being used to this kind of behaviour between their children, Rhysand and Feyre only look shortly at their cute daughter. Mentally they were swooning at the image and cuteness in it to each other, outwardly they turn back to Artemas and ignore Arianna, like she isn't hanging and clinging to her older brother's leg.

"How did you sleep, little moon?" Feyre asks in an attempt of small talk. But the truth is she and Rhys are very concerned about the nightmares he has, but Art doesn't like people being overly concerned about him. 

"Pretty good, no nightmares," Art answers truthfully, while putting his leg down and grabbing his mug from the air. "Though I got woken up, by a tiny, screaming, violent monst-..." 

"I AM NOT A MONSTER!" but Ari is ignored. 

"...-er hours before dawn! Dawn!" Art continues without pausing, and goes to stand at the head of the table beside his father, leaning on the table. "I got woken up by it twice today! Twi-..."

"I AM NOT A THING! ART!" Again Ari gets ignored by everyone.

"...-ce in a day!" Art shakes is head in played frustration, and smiles into his mug. 

_Let's see how long this Game will go on!_

"At least you slept well, son," Rhys points out, now also taking a sip out of his mug, smiling like his son. Feyre finished chewing her toast and asks Art curiously.

"Is the tiny "monster" still -" 

"MOMMY!" 

"- in your room or what did you do it?" Feyre continues with amused sparkle in her eyes. "With your track record of meeting monster, there's only two things you would do to it." 

Rhys nods, agreeing with his mate, "Your either take them as pets, or hunt them down for fun. Which one?" 

"DADDY!" 

"Neither, actually. I wouldn't want something like that as a pet, -" 

"HEY! STOP! ART! FINE!" Being completely feed up with the situation, Ari climbs up her brother. 

"- and I think it wants to hunt me down more, than the other way around." Art keeps ignoring his little sister, even when she is currently at his back making her way to his shoulders. 

Feyre and Rhys look amused at their children, but especially at Ari, who looks like she is ready to throw down with all of them and make their demise as painful as possible.

Finally Ari arrives at her destination. She stands on her brother's left shoulder and clutches his hair in her hands to keep upright. Art doesn't show any signs of pain in his expressions or body language. 

"STOP! IGNORING! ME!" Ari screams, looking murderess. But because Ari's raven-colored hair doesn't look any better than her brother's, her cute red pajamas, and her tiny wings flapping behind her uncoordinated, the display results in her looking so cute and silly, that her parents and her brother start laughing. 

"STOP!" Ari wiggles and shakes in anger. 

"Sorry, little night!" Feyre apologizes with a amused smile, having calmed down at her daughter's outburst. Even Rhys has calmed down and smiles apologetic at his daughter.

Art, on the other hand, doesn't stop laughing, though he tries his best not to bend over, so his little sister wouldn't fall down, he still shakes and has levitated mug into safety in the air. 

Completely done with her brother, Ari stomps hard down on his shoulder. Art doesn't react to it. He just keeps laughing.

Feeling his daughter's temper rising, Rhys quickly stands and picks Ari up, while she stomps again. Vanishing his and his mate's plate, Rhys sits down Ari on the table between him and Feyre. 

"Good morning, little night!" They say together and each kiss Ari on a different cheek. Feyre picks up the lock of hair that has fallen in her daughter's face and brings behind Ari's ear. 

"Good morning, Daddy! Mommy!" Ari greets cheerfully, happy to have her parents sole attention and kicks her legs out. Smiling, Ari brings her arms up. An universal sign that a child wants to be picked up.

_Cauldron she is so cute!_

Rhys picks her up and supports her by letting her sit on his forearm. Ari curls one arm around her father's neck and leans her head against it, facing her mother. 

Her outburst though, worries Rhys and Feyre slightly because normally Ari would play along in this game, giggling and shouting in protest while they eluded to her, pretending she isn't there, while she hides behind someone or something. But this time, she didn't seem to be in the mood for it. 

While Feyre asks Ari about her sleep, Rhys turns his head slightly to face Art. The Heir now sits on the counter, the mug levitates beside the plate he is currently eating from. Art just shrugs at his father's questioning look, but his eyes twinkle in amusement and mischief. 

_Well, they will not get anything out of their son regarding this matter._

Sighing, Rhys turns to face his mate, and they mentally agree just to ask their daughter outright. 

"Little night, why were you clinging to your brother's leg?" Feyre choose to ask the probably easiest to answer question. 

"Because Art wouldn't listen to me! He's a dummy!" Ari exclaims upset, pouting and kicking her legs. Both of her parents turn at that to the culprit. Who just smiled at them, teeth showing. 

"Artemas, why wouldn't you listen to Arianna?" Feyre is not surprised nor shocked by her son's behaviour. 

"I don't listen to loud monsters, who wake me up hours before the sun rises on a weekend, no less." Art tells them seriously, taking a bite of his toast. Ari starts growling. Rhys and Feyre just roll their eyes. 

_Nothing new, Art likes to sleep in on weekends and on ... weekdays._

"Ari, what did you want from your brother that you needed to wake him up that early?" Rhys questions the little princess in his arms. 

"Don't wanna tell you!" Ari whines and presses her face into her father's neck. 

"Why?" 

"Because you probably won't let him and even if you do, Art wouldn't listen to you, if I ask you to make him do it." Ari's frustrated mumbles are muffled, but still clearly hearable. 

Sensing that they will not get it out of the princess, High Lord and High Lady turn yet again to the Heir for an explanation. But this time the Heir answers with smile.

"She wants me to teach her how to fly today."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked it! 
> 
> If you have any kind of questions, feel free to ask me, because I would love to answer them!
> 
> If you also want more, visit me on Tumblr @heirs-of-prythian or @aster-ria.


	5. Dramatic Heir

The High Lord and the High Lady look at the Heir, who is chewing and smiling innocently, while the Princess whines into her father’s neck and hugs him tighter.

Ari tries to accept her fate, her parents would never let her brother teach her flying alone, because of the dangerous things Art let’s her do sometimes and they are way to overprotective over her. Well the latter is more according to Art, but it’s true. Rhys and Feyre are rather overprotective over their young and only daughter, especially when the last war wasn’t that long ago.

And flying, especially if you just start learning it and you actually have no idea how to use your wings properly, is rather dangerous.

_So now she will get some boring lessons, with her parents hovering nearby, even if they let Art do it. And that’s not going to be fun. Her plan just completely flopped._

Ari was ready to start crying and throwing a big temper tantrum. But then she heard the words she hadn’t thought she would hear from her parents regarding this topic.

“And why did you say no that, Art?”

“But why do you think we won’t let him do that, Ari?”

Comes it at same time from the mates. The former question was asked by Rhys and the latter by Feyre. Both looking questioningly and confused at the child that their respective question was directed to.

Ari’s head immediately shots upwards and she looks stunned at her mother, mouth gaping open, eyes wide. And then the winged princess tries to stand up, breaking her father’s embrace, but not finding a good foothold, causes her to lose her balance and to almost fall off her father’s lap, if not for Feyre catching and picking her up.

Feyre just sits her daughter down on the table again. Being a bit worried because her daughter was still as night air, not moving even a little, which is not normal for Ari. Feyre looks into her little night’s unfocused eyes, trying to read the situation and calm her down if necessary.

Meanwhile Art just grins at his father and shrugs nonchalantly. Not answering. Still sitting on the counter. Artemas bites into a pastry, the plate is now flouting in front of him. Not breaking eye contact with his father.

_He’s enjoying this way too much._

“Wha … But…?” Ari still can’t get her thoughts together, her mind blanks out on her, thoughts circling around what her mother just said and the implications of said words. But after some time Ari comes slowly back to her senses. Her mother smooths a hand down Ari’s right arm, and her father tries to fix her hair as best possible without disturbing her, the whole time through.

“You’d let him teach me how to fly without you there?” Ari exclaims in disbelief, looking at her parents, eyes still wide. Both just nod. “We are talking about Art!” Again nods and amused smiles. “Artemas! The meanie right there!” Ari nearly screeches, pointing at her brother, who smiles innocently and sips his tea.

“Yes, little night. Your beloved older brother Artemas, also known as Art or "little moon”, the so-called ‘meanie’.“ Feyre replies amused, smiling at her daughter’s theatrics, tracing her knuckles along Ari’s right cheek.

_Cauldron, she is so much like Rhys._

But before Ari could ask, exclaim or maybe even scream more, Rhys turns to Art again and repeats his question sternly, wanting a straight answer from him.

"Why not.” Is all what Art offered nonchalantly, picking his plate up from the air and let’s his cup now flout in front of him. Both Rhys and Feyre roll their eyes at the typical behaviour of their son, while Ari looks curiously at him, hope shimmering in her eyes.

“If I remember correctly,” Feyre begins, but pauses to tap her forefinger against her chin, looking deep in thought. “You had already begged us to let you teach at least one of your future little siblings flying. And that was when you were 9, little moon.”

Ari looks wide eyed at her brother, who’s cheeks turn slightly red and has now his eyes closed, looking embarrassed. Though she doesn’t get the chance to say anything, because Rhys continues where his mate has left off.

“And if my memories don’t betray me,” Rhys now rubs his chin, slightly copying his mate, looking smug. “You already made plans to teach your little sibling, when you found out that you’re going to be big brother.”

Rhys smiles at his son’s groaning. Art has his face in both of his face and seems to be muttering to himself, while his little sister eyes just grow wider and her mouth drops open.

“And how upset you were when Arianna was born,” Rhys continues without mercy. “because she didn’t have wings. You said and I quote "it’s going to be a long while until she will be able to make herself some wings on her own, if she even has the magic to do that to begin with.” and also “even if she doesn’t have the magic, maybe I can give her some of it to do it.” as well as multiple plans to get Ari her own wings.“

Throughout the whole speech of his father, Art has slowly sunk down from the counter to the floor. Now sitting there with bend knees, elbows on the knees and his face buried in both of his hands, the Heir mumbles to himself.

"Dad! Why did you have to bring that up! Ari is going to tease me with that for forever.” Art’s voice is muffled by his hands. “Maybe not now, but when she’s older! Mother’s tits!” Art keeps mumbling swearwords in different languages into his hands.

“You asshole!” Ari screams angry, finally woken out of her stupor. She climbs on the table, stands and points angrily at her brother, while shouting other similar insults at him. All of them in different languages, which could have only gotten from a curtain group of people, one person in particular.

_Art is sometimes a really bad influence on children._

“Arianna!” Both Rhys and Feyre scold their daughter, not being happy about their daughter knowing and using such words, especially since she is four. Granted four years and eight months, like both Art and Ari would correct them.

_Cauldron, their children are so adorable, even if one is swearing and the other is insulting the former._

“Calm down, both of you!” Rhys orders loud and sternly. His children stop their vulgar onslaught of words. Art still has his face in his hands, not acknowledging his father further. While Ari already turned to her father, pouting and crossing her arms, opening her mouth to defend herself, but Rhys speaks again before she gets even a sound out.

“Ari, Art was clearly just teasing you, he would have said yes in the end, no matter what! So how about you ask him again once he calms down and acknowledges us.”

“Fine!” Ari huffs, still pouting and glaring at her brother with crossed arms, but there’s excitement and hope in her eyes, glittering like stars in her blue-grey eyes.

“Art,” Feyre continues her mates speech, while he tries to stir Ari towards him and to hug her to calm her down more. “You really think she would tease you about that when she’s older?” -Art just nods and looks up the ceiling,- “I also don’t see why anyone would do that? I find it endearing and sweet.”

“Yeah, sure, maybe you do and someone else too but I have been teased for less, Mom!” Art exclaims, throwing his hands up, letting his head bangs against the counter door. “What about "the most dramatic birth of all time” like Hemy and Cad like to call it? Both still tease me vehemently about it!“

Both Rhys and Feyre rise an eyebrow at their son’s display, seeming really not surprised by it.

"Are you really that bother by it?” Rhys asks doubtfully, already seeing the answer coming.

“No!” Art answers with wide grin, eyes sparkling. “I don’t care! It’s just annoying sometimes. And I don’t really care if Ari’s going to tease me about the whole flying and wing thing either. I’m just being dramatic!” Art finishes impishly with a laugh and winnows himself into the chair on the head of the table. The plate and mug just materializes on the table in front of him.

Feyre and Rhys just roll their eyes again at their son’s typical behaviour.

_He will never change._

Swallowing her anger, because her brother always says no if she’s angry, Ari gets out of her father’s hold. Determined, Ari turns to her brother, puts both her hands on the table to stabilize herself, since she stands on her father’s knees. Now looking directly into her brother’s eyes, where amusement still shines, while hope still glitters in her own eyes, Ari takes a deep breath.

“Art, will you teach me how to fly, please?”

There’s a heartbeat where nobody makes a sound, while Art grins grows, splitting his face nearly in half, looking happy beyond belief, love sparkles in his eyes like starfall’s falling stars.

“I feel more than honored, little night, that you want me to teach on your own accord,” -Art puts his right hand on his heart and bows his head slightly.- “And it would be a dream come true for me, if I get to do it.” He says moony, lifting his head, looking at his little sister. Who smiles big, teeth showing, and who is literally shaking in excitement.

The Heir rises his left hand towards the Princess, palm up, the right still on his heart.

Little Night doesn’t hesitate and puts a hand into Little Moon’s, eager to see what the other has planned.

Artemas tugs Arianna on top of the table and in front of him, hands still holding, smiling at each other. One excited and curious, the other happy and proud. Blue-grey meets blue-grey.

Art brings Ari’s hand to his lips and kisses her knuckles, than puts her hand above his heart, clutching it with both hands now.

“I would love nothing more than to teach you, Arianna, Princess of Night, little night, my violent, energetic, little sister, who I love more than the moon in the sky.”

Excitement and happiness lights up Air’s whole face. Rhys and Feyre smile proudly at their children, completely in love with the picture. Feyre has already decided to paint that scene later.

_It’s going to be beautiful! Something like that needs to be remembered._

Ari steps closer to her brother, noses almost touching, still smiling. Both don’t move for a beat, but then they do.

“First!” Ari screams gleefully, after she kissed her older brother’s nose.

_It’s been a long time since she won against him._

“Yes! Yeeeesss! Yes!” Ari continues, laughing, breaking away from Art to dance and jump around on the table, never stoping her gleeful and happy shouting. Ari has started her victory dance. Her family just watches her, smiling at her, love in their expression.

Then the little, dancing girl spins around to face her older brother, and stops her dancing, though still literally shaking in excitement and anticipation.

“What are we waiting for? Let’s go!” Ari says to him, impatient. But before she can turn around again to jump of the table, Feyre stops her, picks her up and sits her down beside her, while saying.

“Not so fast, little night! First you eat your breakfast and than you get ready and change you cloth-” Ari tries to interrupt her, starting to protest, but Feyre doesn’t let her. “Do you want to have your first lesson in your pajamas or with an empty stomach?”

“No!” Ari admits, pouting and sulking. “Fine!”

“You would needed to wait anyway, so stop sulking,” Art tells her, “I, too need to get ready. Which I’m going to do now.” Ari’s eyes widen, frantic, starting to stuff her mouth with bacon from the plate her father put in front of her, chewing hastily.

“Arianna,” Rhys warns, knowing exactly why she does it, Art is notoriously fast in getting ready, “Art will not start without you, so take your time, the lesson isn’t going to run away.”

Ari huffs and kicks her legs, but slows down. Facing her brother again, Ari makes a demand.

“You’re going to have your wings out for every lesson, little moon!” Pointing her fork at his empty space over his shoulder. Art doesn’t have his wings out, they are shapeshifted away and secured with a spell to stay that away until it’s triggered. Art finds them rather annoying when he is not using his wings, even if he loves them and flying.

“I can agree to that.” Art nods and says diplomatically. “Yes!” Ari exclaims cheerfully.

_Her day is going great, so great, better than she hoped it would go._

“Can Echo go with us, too?” She wonders out loud, more to herself than anything else. “Arianna Darling, Echo will start being teached by her father on her birthday in two weeks,” Rhys tells her, “you should know best.”

“I know, I know!” Ari just goes back to eat her breakfast. “I just it would be even funnier with her. …. Or maybe Aura?”

“Aura has no wings, little night,” Feyre interjects her daughter, “and she doesn’t like high places very much.”

“Right..” Ari slums down, bowing her head, picking at her food.

“Don’t worry, little night,” Art tells his adorable little sister, amused at her behaviour, “we’re going to have a lot of fun, the two of us.”

“That gets me seriously worried, Art,” Rhys sighs, rubbing the bridge of his nose, “please don’t go overboard!”

Art just smiles innocently and winnows away. Leaving an empty chair behind. Rhys just sighs again and mumbles something to himself.

Determined to be fast, Ari eats quickly without it looking like she is in a rush or like she is swallowing without chewing, which she is only doing partly. After she finished eating, Ari shouts a hasty thanks and races up the stairs to her room.

Rhys and Feyre just shake their heads and laugh. Standing up, they take care of the dishes and go to get ready themselves, deciding that a walk around Velaris would be nice. Not even worrying at all, about their daughter and her upcoming flying lesson. They trust Art without a doubt and wordlessly to take care and look after Ari and most importantly keep her save and sound. They don’t need to warn or remind or tell or scold him for anything. Art knows what to do and what not to do.

_Their son would do anything for their daughter. Anything to keep her save, happy and healthy. Art is also an excellent teacher himself._

This is also why they didn’t hesitate even a little about letting Art teach and train Ari. And Art truely had been asking them to let him to do it since he started begging for a little sibling. So the High Lord and the High Lady are a completely at peace with the situation.

And so after a turbulent morning, the Ruling Family of the Night Court gets ready for their day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all like it! 
> 
> If you have any questions, feel free to ask me here or on my Tumblr @heirs-of-prythian. I would love to answer them.


	6. Flying lesson

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: if anything i wrote about wings in this and the next chapter is complete bs, please tell me! I don't want to spread misinformation and I have actually no real clue how wings really work! So take everything I wrote about them with a grain of salt.

Artemas waits for Arianna in front of the foot of the stairs. And as predicted, Art was fast in taking a quick bath and brushing his teeth. He didn’t even bother with his hair, it looks better when he let’s it be. The 77 year old also simply put on a dark blue shirt and some black trousers, which he just fished out of his closet without looking.

Regardless of his obvious not caring of his appearance, Art looks handsome, very handsome actually. Art personally just faults his genes for it.

His whole morning routine didn’t even take 8 minutes. Or as Art would say: “It only took me this long long time, because of the damn bath. That always wastes so much time! There needs to be a faster method!”

But other than the clothes, there is something different about Art’s appearance, something big. His wings are now neatly folded on his back. Not giving away their size and span. Though they make him look a little more like a Illyrian than before, even if the rest of his appearance doesn’t even hint his Illyrian heritage one bit.

The now winged male entertains himself with a book, leaning his shoulder on the wall beside the stairs leading up to the bedrooms, but instead of holding the book in his hands, it flouts in front of his face, the pages turning on their own, his hands in his pockets. And just like that Art waits for his little sister to be done as well.

“Daddy! Help! Me! With! This! Stupid! Shirt!” Ari screams annoyed and desperately from her room upstairs, with a lot of grunting, huffing, growling and stomping. And then Art hears something rip. Most likely Ari’s shirt, which she either destroyed on accident or completely on purpose, because of her frustration.

_It’s most probably the latter, Ari is way to impatient. Let’s hope that she one day will -hopefully- learn how to put shirts and dresses on her own when the wings are out. Maybe he should teach her that too._

Ari let’s out an impatient cry of frustration, which almost turn into sobbing, when apparently Rhys must have entered her room to calm her down and help her dress. But Art didn’t hear more than a “little night” from Rhys before the door closed and a silencing spell was put into place. Just for temper tantrum safety reasons, his father wouldn’t want whole Velaris to hear one this early in the morning, on a weekend no less. Not that such a spell would hinder Art much to listen into the room, but he just wasn’t interested enough to do that. Rather he just keeps reading his book.

_The book just got rather interesting._

Not long after this whole spectacle, Art hears a door thrown open and tiny footsteps fast approaching, sprinting towards the stairs. Not seeming to slow down even a little, just getting faster and faster each step.

“Catch!” Ari screams loud and cheerfully, a heartbeat before she jumps in a big leap down the stairs. Not even checking if Art is even close the stairs, just blindly trusting that he will catch her no matter where he is downstairs.

And it’s not like she is wrong about that, because Art would catch her one way or another, no matter where he is in correlation with her. So Ari isn’t surprised when she sees her brother, who had vanished his book with her screamed order and has opened his arms to catch her. Grinning widely the 4 years and 8 months olds girl lands in her brother arms, while he takes a step back, not to be knocked over by the force, which would have landed them on the floor otherwise.

Arianna is dressed in a red longarmed shirt and black pants over black shoes. Which she probably choose to wear because the lessons are more training than theory. And Ari always wears trousers to train or most physical activities. To any other time or activity, Ari would only wear skirts and dresses. Flowing and puffy, eye-catching and twirling dresses and skirts, in multiple colors. Though she likes her outfits colourful, the princess favorite colors are red and black.

Ari likes to look pretty and like a princess. And she loves it when she gets compliments on her outfits. But now except for her hair that is neatly combed and braided with a few tiny trinkets - like flowers, fake gems and butterflies - in it, Ari doesn’t look like a normal princess, at least in her opinion.

She looks like a little Illyrian girl, excited and gleeful for her first flying lesson. Her cheeks are flushed red and her blue-grey eyes shine so bright they look like the falling stars from Starfall.

“Calm down, little night, I’m going to drop you, if you keep up that jumping!” Art warns her sternly, but there was amusement in his voice and eyes. He indeed tries to keep Ari upright in his arms, while the princess makes jumping movements, barely containing her excitement for her first flying lesson with her older brother.

“Arianna,” Feyre says sternly while descending the stairs, looking at her adorable children, smiling despite her tone, “Listen carefully to your brother.”

_Mother, they are so adorable together!_

“Of course, Mommy!” Ari has turned her head back to the stairs, her eyes landing on and following her mother, smiling happily, shaking slightly. Ari was way to excited to care about her mother silly demands, well at least “silly” in Ari’s mind, who gets usually offended half the time about such commands.

“And don’t over exhaust your brother either!” Feyre continues, looking straight into Art’s eyes. Worry flashes through her eyes and face for a second. A worry more about Art’s wellbeing than the flying lesson on itself. She isn’t worried about that.

_Arianna always was, is, and will be safe with Artemas. No matter the circumstances or how well she can take care of herself in the future. There isn’t a single doubt in Feyre’s and Rhys’ mind, not even for a second._

Art meets his mother eyes immediately, feeling and knowing what his mother’s, and subsequently his father’s, worries are about. Smiling softly, kindly, patiently, Art speaks to Feyre in her mind, avoiding to interrupt his sister, who is vehemently defending herself of her not being exhausting to her older brother.

“Mom, Dad, I’m fine, no need to worry, being in a forest isn’t going to make me panicky. Or are you worried a tree is going to scare me?” Art has almost free entry into his parents mind, as long as they haven’t blocked him out. His voice is sure and steady, but turned teasing with his last question. Art also knows that Rhys is in Feyre’s mind, since he still needed to get ready, because of Ari, and couldn’t be downstairs right now.

“We are your parents, Artemas, we are always going to worry, that’s what parents do.” Rhys voice is sure and parental and loving, but still teasing around the edges, and completely ignoring his son’s retorical question.

This only causes Art to roll his eyes, shake his head, but still smiling and adjusting Ari in his arms, pressing a kiss on the top of her head. Feeling her brother’s kiss, Ari stopped her protesting, to which nobody really listen to, and turns her head back to her brother. Realising that she wasted time, makes a impatient sound at Art and started to kick her legs on his side’s.

Amused, Art sighs and retreats out of his mother’s mind and says out loud.

“Well than we better get going now, since I have a wild feeling that you want me to fly us there and not winnow, little night,” Art tells a wildly nodding and in excitement even more than before shaking Ari. “Than it’s going to take us a while to get where I plan to train and teach you.”

“Where would that be, little moon?” Rhys asks from the top of the stairs, starting descending down to them, looking immaculate in black and dark blue. His eyes are on his children all the way down, there’s worry and love in them, the first he tries to hide as best as possible but obviously failing, since Art still sees it.

“West of the Illyrian steppes’ borders, Dad. Hmmm… Maybe even in them, but we’ll see how fast Ari does learn today. But we’re going to be fine, Uncle Azzie has a tracker on me, don’t forget that.” Art says without hesitation, liking it better if he can be found than not. Adjusting Ari, who looked curiously between her parents and her older brother, in his arms again, Art pivots on one foot and heads for the door.

“Have fun, you two! And be back for dinner!” Feyre starts the goodbye and the Rhys ends it with a “Be patient with flying, Ari, and tell us everything later! We love you both!”

“Bye-bye! Love you both, too!” Ari laughs, waving her hand in big arcs and looking over her brother’s shoulder, “I’ll tell you everything later!”

Art just turns his head after he opened the door and went a few places into the front yard, smiles and waves over his shoulder.

Feyre and Rhys follow Art to the doorway and look at their son stretching his massive wings. They look for any kind of marks on the wings, just out if habit, but Art’s wings are spotless. Nothing major ever happened to them, Art made sure of it. But even the nicks that should grace his wings are not there, his magic works faster than his skin can scar, therefore Art has not that many scars on his body to begin with.

Bending his knees and holding Ari tighter to his chest, Art takes off straight into the sky. Beating his wings a little until he has the right height and speed, than just mostly glides, occasionally beating his massive wings.

“Hanging! Do the hanging, Art! Now!” Ari orders and stirs in Art’s arms, trying to wiggle free.

“Fine!”

Art twists her in his arms, hands secure on her sides, and then her stretches them downward, hanging them loosely. Now Ari’s body is parallel to Art’s. Keeping her body rigid, Ari throws her arms out to the sides, shouting in glee.

“Well when we’re already doing this then I can teach you something already.” Art says into Ari’s mind, not wanting to scream over the wind. But this time Ari isn’t startled, Art does this all the time when he flies with her, so she already expected him to do that. Still she is beyond excited about learning something.

_She will finally start learn how to fly. It’s a dream come true for her._

“Yes! Do that! Do that!”

“Stretch your wings out, little night. But be careful!”

“Like this?” Ari asks after she tried to do what her brother had told her.

“A little bit more bending down, no, not like that … Yes, right just like that.” Art advices patiently, watching Ari’s wings. “And now keep them just like that as long as possible, when you can’t take it anymore, one beat, than again outstretching. Than repeat. Okay?”

“Okay!” Comes it from a determined Ari, her tongue sticking out and her brows are frowning in concentration.

After about 3 minutes, Ari beats her wings once and then stretches them out again.

“Not bad for the first time!” Art praises, which makes a triumphant smile appear in Ari’s face, but she is too concentrated on her wings that she can’t answer back.

This goes on for about half of the way, when Art’s hands leave his little sister’s side, but Ari isn’t moving an inch down. Flouting and flying because of her brother’s magic, but it still surprised Ari enough to throw her off and make her beat her wings more than once. And she isn’t all to happy about that.

“Art!”

“Sorry, little night, but that’s enough for now. You’re doing great!” Art interrupts her before she can say more, while turning her with his magic and encircling her in his arms. Kissing the top of her head, Art mumbles into her hair. “Now let your wings rest a little. And enjoy the rest of the flight.”

After some time flying around mountains and over forests has passed, Art tells her that they are there and begins to ask her how she wants to get down, but before he can even get one word out, Ari screams excited, out loud and not into her mind:

“Falling straight down without wings!”

Laughing to himself, Art obeys and vanishes his wings. Abruptly they are pummeling downwards, headfirst. Wind rushing around them. Ari let’s out screams in pure delight and Art grins dreamy, eyes closed.

_Both of them love doing that. Just a habit Ari copied off of Art. And there’s a very good chance that Ari will to that too, when she can fly on her own._

The moment they reach the treetop, winds start to whirl around them, turning them around and slowing their fall slowly but surely. In the end Art lands on his feet without much of a sound.

Breathing heavily, Ari jumps down from Art’s arms and tries to steady herself. Pointing at her brother, who doesn’t look even one bit winded or exhausted from flying for hours, Ari reminds him that he promised that his wings will be out for the whole lesson, not bit surprised about his state.

“Yes, yes, you impatient little thing!” Art let’s his wings reappear with extragated smile and folds them without much fuss on his back. Ari nods with satisfied grin, rocking back and forth on her heels and looks curiously around.

They are close to a cliff at the edge of a forest, the distant snowy peaks of mountains are visible above the trees. There is definitely a river and a waterfall nearby, because Ari hears rushing and falling bodies of water. They are pretty close to the cliff, so close that it would take Ari not a lot of steps before she reaches the edge, but far away enough that it wasn’t really dangerous to her, since her brother stands between her and the edge. Looking toward the cliff, Ari sees more trees. Trees apon trees. Massive, green and lush forests, where she can feel danger coming from. Danger from deathly creatures. About who Ari isn’t very worried about, because of her older brother. Whom the creatures are actually more afraid of than she if the them. And also because Art likes to hunt them for fun, so he knows how to either kill or injure them enough, so that they aren’t a threat to her.

_Her brother is badass like that!_

She doesn’t have any real specific clue where they are exactly, though she knows that the dangerous, green forests are the Illyrian steppes. Turning from the steppes to her brother, Ari takes a deep breath and tries to calm herself as best as possible, which seems to be impossible, because of excitement and happiness.

_This lessons are good to be so much fun, she feels it in her bones._

“What first?”

“Stretching!” Art answers a blinking Ari and sits down in front of her, cross-legged. But than he answers a unasked question from his little sister. “Stretching is important, little night! Especially if you just start learning.”

“But you don’t like stretching, little moon!” Ari accuses him, arms crossing, patting her right foot impatiently.

“And I am not going to stretch, Ari. You are. I’m just showing you how and help you with it.” Art rolls his eyes and huffs, cheeks gaining a little bit of red.

_Cauldron, how much he hated stretching and exercising in general!_

“Now turn around and spread your wings!” Art tells her while twirling one finger and Ari obeys.

And so Art spends one hour slowly showing Ari how to stretch correctly. Giving her tips and tricks and warnings, which she all absorbs like a sponge, eager to get it right, eager to be able to fly as fast as possible.

“Here drink.” Art offers her a cup of water, which she takes and drains in four big glups. Ari now sits in front of her brother, facing him, her wings hang low, feet outstretched in front of her. She tries to regulate her breathing.

“We are making a break now, little night. So just rest and eat, it’s already lunchtime.”

At the mention of lunch, the princess’ tummy starts to growl and the heir laughs while handing her flat bread and places some fruits on a blanket that suddenly appears under them. There are strawberries, apple slides, grapes, blueberries and pineapple pieces. Ari doesn’t questioning any of that, already used to such displays, instead she just wolfs down her bread with strawberries and sliced apples and pineapple -her favorite. Despite not feeling hungry, Art still eats his fair share, which a little more than Ari.

After they are done, Art makes Ari take a small nap surrounded in his darkness, which isn’t easy to accomplish, it involves usually a lot of persuading and threatening on Art’s or anyone else’s part and a lot pouting, defiance and a temper tantrum on Ari’s part, because she doesn’t want to sleep. But naturally Art got her to sleep for 30 minutes. After the nap and some more water drinking, since it got quite warm outside, the siblings continue with the lesson.

“So how about your first attempt on gliding on your own?” Art asks his little sister before she could ask him, what is next on the plan. Nodding eagerly, Ari screams excited yeses, jumping up and down.

“Just count to ten, then spread your wings,” Art picks her up, holds her an arm-length way from him on her sides, “like I taught you on the flight here.”

Art holds her up over her head, paralleling her body with the ground.

“You can close your eyes if you want too.” Ari shakes her head, grinning wildly.

This is going to be so much fun, she just feels it.

Art turns her around, so she is facing his face. “Remember I am here!” Art goes some steps backwards, while Ari’s grin grows in knowing excitement.

Oh she figured out what her brother has planned and she beyond thrilled about it.

“Ready?” Artemas asks Arianna and she nods fast, both grinning at each other. Art mischievously and Ari thrilled and excited.

Then without more of a warning, the heir pivots on one foot and chucks the princess headfirst down the cliff.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked it!!
> 
> If you have any questions, feel free to ask me! I would love to answer them!
> 
> Also visit my @heirs-of-prythian, for more of the Heirs.


	7. Secret Promise

**One**

Arianna feels the rush of the winds tugging on her clothes and hair.

**Two**

She brings her arm as close as possible to her body to fall even faster.

**Three**

She grins wide. Though her eyes aren’t closed as her brother suggested.

**Four**

_Mother, she is having so much fun right now! This is breathtaking. Exhilarating! Amazing! Marvelous!_

**Five**

_The lesson is even better than she hoped it to be. So so so much better. She wants it to never end._

**Six**

She sees the big blue rushing river, that was hidden from her view earlier, and the ground coming closer and closer to her.

**Seven**

And despite that Ari doesn’t have a single shred of fear in her.

_Why would she? Her beloved brilliant brother is here and he would never not catch her. Ever._

**Eight**

Now Ari focuses on the gliding part instead of the beautiful view, the exhilarating feeling and the unending fun she is having.

**Nine**

Putting everything else into the back of her mind, Ari prepares herself. Focused and determined to get it right.

**Ten**

Ari opens and spreads her wings as far out as possible. She starts to glide a little, then loses her balance a little, but then catching it again before she could fall.

Ari doesn’t let out a cry of triumph or a scream of victory. The gliding princess is way too concentrated on her wings and on trying to figure out how to land. But she doesn’t need to worry about that, because after a minute of gliding, she is suddenly enveloped in familiar mist, wind and darkness.

After it all faded away, Ari is back on the top of the cliff, in Artemas arms to be more specific. Art smiles proudly at her.

Ari is so out of breath, that she can only smile back at him. Even if she wants to start bubbling about what just happened, but her heart beats too fast like it wants to break out of her ribcage and jump down again and again and again, her inhales and exhales are so fast and uncoordinated that she’s hiccuping. Tears from the wind are glittering in the corner of her eyes. Her hair is a mess, her braid is almost undone. She is gripping her brother’s shirt to get herself grounded again, to calm herself down.

_She needs to calm down, because otherwise she will jump down herself again. Right this second. She wants it happened again so so badly._

Ari buries her face into her favourite calming source, her older brother Artemas.

_Because he calms her down everytime and without fail._

Art laughs silently to himself, when he sees her relaxing her wings completely and letting them hang on her back weakly. Undoing her braid, Art brushes his fingers through his little sister’s hair, while removing all the trinkets with magic.

When he feels and hears her heartbeat settle down and her breathing normalize, Art hoists her up in his arms, so that she now facing him on eye-level.

“You seem to like that, little night.” Art observes and wipes her tears that escaped her eyes. That’s a clear understatement, she loves it way too much. “So much even that it made you completely speechless! That doesn’t happen often!”

“Again! Ag-…” Ari starts to demand, but Art interrupts her immediately.

“No, for today, that’s more than enough, Arianna!” Art looks at her sternly and tightens his hold on her, less she decides to jump out of his arms and jump down herself. Not that he was afraid that something would happen to her even if she did that.

_No, he has other reasons for not throwing her down again. One of them being, that he thinks that doing it again wouldn’t be good for her wings. Once was fine, but twice for untrained wings not so much._

“Please! Art! Pretty please!” Ari begs with puppy-eyes, but they aren’t working on Art.

_They never were. Art is immune to puppy-eyes._

“I said no, Arianna,” He says sternly, but his face is apologetic. Smoothing her hair away from her face, Art looks conspiratorially at her, bringing their foreheads together.

“You need to promise me something, little night,” he whispers, taking her right hand into his, running his thumb over the back of her hand. “Something big.”

“Yes! Yes, of course! What is it? Tell me! Little moon, do tell!” Ari nods wildly, eyes wide.

“I want you to keep something a secret, my smart little sister.” The Heir of Night whispers mischievously, blue-grey eyes sparkling. “I am sure you can figure it out what I don’t want Mom and Dad to know about by yourself, right little night? It’s pretty obvious!”

Ari blinks and frowns. But she doesn’t think long before she gasps in realisation. Gaping at her brother, who now grins wide at her, Arianna knows exactly what her brother doesn’t want their parents to know, and she actually agrees with him, since she doesn’t want that either. Otherwise she will never get to do it again, and Art will not be allowed to teach her anymore after this lesson.

“I will not tell them that you threw me off a cliff!” Ari nearly screams in panic. “Otherwise our lesson will stop an-…”

Suddenly there isn’t even the tiniest sounds leaving Ari’s lips. Which makes here during the last part of her sentence look like a gluping fish, because Ari was so in desperate panic that she didn’t realize her brother is silencing her.

“Sssshhhhhh, Ari, it’s a secret! So keep your voice quiet.” Art shushes her and chuckles at her resolute face, she gives him after she noticed what happened. Feeling her whole attention on him, Art continues.

“Since we’re in an agreement here, that Mom and Dad and everybody, who would tell them, shouldn’t know about the "cliff-incident”, we’re not going to tell them a word about it!“ Ari nods frantically at him, jumping in his arms.

_Hell, she’s so cute! He loves her so much!_

"Perfect!” Art grins and brings her hand up with his. Palm against palm. “Now repeat after me. I, Princess Arianna of Night, …”

“I, Princess Arianna of Night, …” Ari repeats seriously, but she can’t keep enthusiasm from her eyes. She is over the moon to share another secret with her big brother, a bigger one than the ones she already has with him.

“… promise Prince and Heir Artemas of Night…” The mentioned heir continues, his face mirroring his little sister. The little Princess repeats it.

“… that I will not tell…” Again a repeat from the little girl in his arms.

“… our parents, High Lord Rhysand and High Lady Feyre of the Night Court,…” Glaring at her brother for the long part, Ari repeats it without stuttering.

“… and anyone who would tell them,…” Ari continues her copying, but stopped glaring.

“… about the Cliff…” Ari starts to get impatient and kicks her legs out, but repeats it nonetheless.

_This is getting way to long for her liking!_

“… and me being thrown off of it…” Again the same, but Ari could see the end at the horizon. Art just smiles at her impatience and continues.

“… and the most probable repetition of it…” Ari’s eyes light up at that, though she does have problems with the word “repetition”.

_Art is going to do it again! YES!! HELL YEAH!! Thank the mother!_

“… in other future lessons…” Art laughs at the obvious excitement Ari is displaying while she tries to say the words as seriously as possible, but is clearly failing.

“… until the foreseeable future.”

After the last word leaves Ari’s lips, their palms start glow. A streak of light slitters along Ari’s arm like a tiny snake and settles on her upper arm. Curling around it like a bracelet. The light snake glows bright until it stops abruptly and vanishes completely.

Little night had looked at it with wonder. She is always so fascinated with her big brother’s magic. Little moon smiles satisfiedly and proudly at his younger sister.

“So now that that’s out of the way, how about we pick up where we left of with the lesson?”

“You want to do it again?” Ari snaps out of her wonder and asks in disbelief, but with a little bit of hope.

“Pfff, hell No, Ari!” Art laughs out loud. “This one time is already more than enough! I mean ‘Baby gliding’, silly.”

“What’s that?”

“The same as before just from smaller heights, like from a tree branch or a tiny boulder or something similar.” Art explains patiently. Ari huffs and pouts, not really happy about something so boring.

_She had been jumping down from higher, even without having wings. This isn’t going to be fun._

“Of course for you, we’ll go higher, but nothing higher than our house, okay?” Art placates before Ari could complain.

Sighing, Ari agrees. That’s as good as she’ll get today.

And so they continue the lesson.

* * *

The High Lord and High Lady of the Night Court had their first real quiet day without their daughter in quite some time. And they enjoyed it immensely. Don’t get them wrong, they love and adore their daughter dearly and don’t want her to change, but Arianna is a rather exhausting child to look after.

And they did miss her, quite a lot actually. But they weren’t worried about her. Though they can’t wait to see her again and hear what she learnt today and how she feels about flying now. They also want to know what their son had taught his sister.

_They have no doubt that their only son is an excellent teacher, but they want to know if their daughter thinks the same about him._

So after a quiet and rather uneventful day strolling through Velaris, talking to friends they meet while strolling, meeting Azriel, Leda and Echo for Lunch. Echo was quite upset that Ari or Art wasn’t with them, but happy for Ari learning how to fly, then excited for her own lessons starting on her birthday in two weeks, then thrilled that she and Ari could fly someday together. Other than that, the lunch was quite uneventful.

For tea they meet Mor, which resulted in a shopping tour, since she heard something about new shoes for younglings and she got Rhys and Feyre to check it out with her. They actually brought some for Ari, Echo and Aura.

Now the powerful mates sit in their living room, enjoying each others company reading, while they wait for their beloved children to come home. And they don’t wait that long for them. Because the front door is opened with a loud bang, that’s vibrates through the whole manor.

“We’re back!” Comes it excited and breathless from their daughter and then they hear fast footsteps approaching.

Smiling at each other, Rhys and Feyre rise to their feet and make their way to the hallway to meet Arianna halfway.

“Daddy! Mommy!” Ari screams and throws herself into her father’s arms, who anticipated that and catches her.

_Their daughter seems to had a lot of fun with her brother. She practically glows from excitement, much less shakes from it._

Before they could ask her anything, Ari has already started rumbling and bubbling.

“FirstweflewthereandArtletmedohangingthanhesaidsomethingaboutfirstexerciseandthenIdidhangingwithoutstretchedwingsanditwasgreatAndthenafterawhilehesaiditwasenoughandthenwhenwegotthereheletmedecidewhowegotdownandIwantedfreefallingandhediditan-…”

“Breath, Ari!” Rhys and Feyre look up from their rumbling, talking-without-pausing-or-breathing daughter to see their son Artemas leaning on the doorframe of the front door. His wings already shifted away. He looks fairly put together, well as put together as Art can look like, despite having been looking after and teaching Ari the whole day. His arms are crossed and he has big grin on his face. There’s definitely something twinkling in his eyes like stars.

Ari had snapped her head back to her brother with his interruption and glares and huffs at him now. Art just keeps looking expectantly at her. Sighing Ari takes a deep breath and turns back to her parents, her smile so wide it reaches from one ear to the other.

“We’ll take that as you being very satisfied with the lesson,” Rhys tells her, grinning at his daughter’s happiness.

“How about you calm down a little and than you tell as one thing after the other, little night! We want to know everything that happened!” Feyre says smiling adoringly at Ari.

Now the whole family is smiling, even if Art’s smile got down right dark and mischievous at the word “everything”, but his parents didn’t noticed, since they are focused on Ari.

Retreating into the living room, High Lord and High Lady of the Night Court ask the Princess of Night about her lesson which she answers as truthfully as possible without hinting about “Cliff-Incident”. Meanwhile the Princess shares a conspicuous, secretive and mischievous smile with the Heir of Night over the High Lord’s shoulder.

And the High Lord and High Lady wouldn’t find out for about 200 years, even if the princess got thrown down a cliff in every lesson or jumped down herself.

And to say that they were happy about it, would have been the understatement of the millennia.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and finally finished!!! and i hope you liked it!  
> if you have any question, feel free to ask me, i would love to answer them!
> 
> also visit me at tumblr @heirs-of-prythian or @aster-ria!


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